June 15
I rode a lazy 51 miles today. It was a beautiful day with light winds and almost no clouds. I rode the whole day on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The fields were barren with either no crops or last year’s dead ones. The weak economy has hit eastern Montana hard; it’s possible that it is just the poverty of this particular reservation. Many homes (occupied) in the country had missing roof sections or sidewalls that were patched with plastic sheeting. The yards, in many instances had 5 or more old, non-operational vehicles, likely for needed parts on the one operational vehicle. Our destination was the dam at Fort Peck creating Fort Peck Lake. The dam was built in the 1930’s and is one of the world’s largest hydraulic earth-filled dams. The reservoir behind the dam is 134 miles long and 16 miles wide and has approximately 1600 miles of shoreline. I had two minor mishaps today about 10 miles from the dam. My first was a stop to discuss directions with Jamye; I couldn’t get my left shoe unclipped, and I fell over right next to her and got multiple cuts on my leg and a deep gash on my ankle from the chain sprocket…pretty clumsy. About two miles later, I was on a fast downhill and a truck was passing as a red wasp hit my inner thigh and rode down the hill with me; I couldn’t do much about him since I had to remain focused on the truck. At least the sting took my mind off my throbbing ankle. By evening, I was fine and ready for the journey west across Montana in the morning. One nice encounter up on the dam late in the afternoon was with Elaine Hanson and her two daughters, DaLinda and Delores. Elaine lives just outside of Seaside, OR, the endpoint of the Lewis and Clark Trail. We will stop for a visit when we pass her home in mid-August.
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